Melting pot or mosaic?

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was an event that pushed the Good News of Jesus Christ out beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem. People from "every nation under heaven" heard the wonders of God being proclaimed,  which caused the community of believers to explode.  The early church was, from it's very beginning, multicultural and diverse. Somehow, they had to learn to be molded together as a community, the body of Christ. Romans 8:14-17 speaks of the Holy Spirit as a spirit of adoption, bringing us into the family of God. The challenge is for us to live out that spirit of adoption. At Park View Mennonite Church our vision statement says that we are a community of communities who worship God and follow Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Pastor Ross Erb spoke of how the United States and Canada have had differing models to integrate immigrants into Society. The U.S. has taken a "melting pot" approach, while Canada has viewed society as a "mosaic". However, using anthropologist Paul Heibert's model of "bounded set" and "centered set" communities might be more helpful in looking at how we deal with diversity within the church community. The example was given of how Virginia Mennonite Conference dealt with the inclusion of members of the military in churches that hold to Jesus' call to be peacemakers. It is only through the working of the Holy Spirit in us and among us that we can have loose boundaries that allow and encourage people to join our community while drawing them toward the center of our community, discipleship to Jesus Christ.